Back during the fairy tale days of 1981, I rose early to watch Lady Diana Spencer marry Prince Charles of England. Alas, the marriage ended badly and Diana died tragically a few years later.

Still, I’m not sorry I watched the wedding. It was a spectacle of everything that was magnificent about the English. I will watch the wedding of Prince William and Katherine Middleton with much less hope of seeing such confidence in the fading Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Britannia.

The media reports that there is much less enthusiasm for the nuptials of Will and Kate here in the states but most of my friends are getting up early Friday morning. I suspect there will be crowds out in London too although most people surveyed say they’re indifferent to the wedding.

Perhaps the wearied world has grown tired of broken fairy tales.

And yet, a little rain is expected to fall on the wedding day, which, I have heard, is good luck.